Reunitning the Dixons
by Caryl4ever
Summary: Ok, so I added some characters, Daryl's children. I think its cute, hope you will too. Once again tell me if you hate it.
1. Chapter 1

Reuniting the Dixons

"So tell me again, how do you have a daughter?"

Carol was confused at Daryl, after they found a half-unconcious little girl that he claimed as "his".

"Well actually...I have two"

"What?! How?!"

"Um, well...Where do you want me to start, Gabbi or Joey?"

"Which one came first?"

"Joey's older, if thats what your asking"

Carol hesitated to ask, "By how much, exactly?"

"Well, Gabbi's four and Joey's twelve"

"She's twelve! Daryl, how come I dont know this?!"

He ran his hand through his hair and stared out the window. Gabbi wiggled in his arms a bit.

"Its a touchy subject, Carol"

She stopped the car, the only reason she was driving was that, as a mother, she knew he couldn't possibly do it himself. She placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Tell me"

He was only about eighteen when the first baby got left on his door-step. He had just flunked out of high school and didn't exactly know what to do, so he went to live with Merle, not the best decision he ever made, but it helped to be with his brother. Merle got in a fight with him the night that Joey got left with them.

"Well then you tell me how the hell we're gonna take care of a baby, Daryl!"

"Hey, you're the one that pushed me to have sex with this random chick!"

Merle slammed his hand against the wall "Shit, Daryl"

"Hey, you wake her up, you gonna be the one putt'n her back to sleep! And that took the both of us like an hour to do so shut up!"

Daryl started to walk away when Merle snapped back, "Hey, Daryl?"

"What?"

"There's this new fangled thing called a 'condom'" Daryl started walking away again, "Ever heard of that?! they work too, its like magic!"

Daryl went into is room and fell asleep to Merle's laughter.

The next morning they were watching her wiggle around on Daryl's old baby blanket. Merle got considerably bored very soon.

"I kinda wanna throw a cheerio at her"

Daryl glared at him "I kinda wanna throw a cheerio at you"

"Whoa! I was kidding! I'm trying to be fun!" But they both knew that was a lie. He glared at him again and dumped Merle's bowl of cheerios all over his shirt.

"Damn it!" He got up to change

"What you're the only one in this house who dont eat em' dry! It had to happen sooner or later!"

He came back about ten minutes later, "So what are you gonna name her?"

"I was thinking about naming her after mom"

The room got tense and Merle hated that "Slut?"

Daryl sighed "Yes Merle, I'm naming my newborn baby Slut"

"Well its original"

"Its something"

"You're lying"

"Genius...Josephina"

"What?"

"I wanna name her Josephina, after mom"

He paused, "I thought her name was Virginia"

"No, man, she smoked Virginia Slims, her name was Josephina"

"But she's a baby"

"So?"

"Thats a long name for a baby!"

"What"

"Well, I mean she's so teenie tiny and that name is like two, six...nine! Nine letters long! And I mean she doesn't even know what a letter is!"

"Well it aint your decision know is it?"

"I mean if you dont want my advice then fine! Just trying to help my brother in his time of need and"

"Wait! My time of need? No, I never asked for your help!"

"I'm family! You don't get to ask! It comes naturally!"

Daryl found a stray cheerio on the table, he threw it at Merle "Screw you!"

"Damn it"

He sat on the couch next to Daryl when he was trying, and failing, to change her diaper.

"No no no no, don't do it that way, no thats worse, just ya know what let me do it"

He started to put the diaper back on then handed her back to Daryl

"How the hell did you do that?"

"I had practice"

"What how?"

"You think you were born potty trained?"

"Aww Merle gross"

"Hey all babies are the same...They crap all the time"

"Just stop, Merle, stop"

A couple months later when she could sit up and play with stuff...and or Merle...Merle would not for the life of him leave her alone, he bought a bunch of baby toys for her and honestly...he played with them more than she did. And one night when Daryl came home Merle said "Daryl if you ever ever get rid of this kid I'll kill you"

"What?"

"She's like the best toy i've ever had, i mean, she's more fun then you ever were"

"What about Gabbi?"

"Hang on, I'm getting to it"

"Wait, just one thing"

"What?"

"You don't eat cheerios with milk?"

Carol was laughing and Daryl tried not to, "Shut up"

"Well it's funny, I can't help it!"

"Hey Merle was the only one, Joey never did and neither does Gabbi"

"Fine, I just think it's wrong"

"Well ya know how people say that things taste better while eating it with their fingers?"

"Yeah"

"It's easier to eat with your fingers dry"

"Fine...Now explain Gabbi!"

Gabbi was pretty much the same story as Joey, except her mom actually came to the door and handed her to Merle just saying to give it to his brother.

"Damn it, Daryl we can't keep doin' this!"

"Well...She said she had birth control!"

"Well she was wrong!"

"I think she would know if she took a pill every day"

"Is that even how it works?"

"I don't know! I don't care!"

"Well you should it's your kid!"

Daryl turned around and hit his head on the wall "Daryl, we can't afford the one we already have, she needs stuff and so will that one! Remember the time that we almost left her at the mall because we couldn't afford anything else?!"

"We never did that"

"Well...No, I did"

"What?! Merle are you trying to give away my children?!"

"No"

"You're the one who threatened me not to give her away! Traitor!"

"I'll be honest, I was a little high when this happened"

"This is why I write on all your little baggies that you keep your shit in, this is why i put 'When in use, do not operate children' Do you not read what I put on those bags!"

"I don't understand the question"

"Screw you!" he started to walk away "And give me my baby"

Later Joey came home from school and got really excited about the baby that she was now sharing a room with.

"Can I name her, Daddy?!"

He really had no idea what to name the baby so he decided it wouldn't be all that bad to let Joey do it "Sure"

She had to think for a minute "I like Gabriella, its fun and pretty!"

And honestly Daryl liked the ring of it "Alright then, its Gabriella"

She waved down at the wiggling little girl "Hi Gabbi"

Merle wasn't satisfied "Wait, so again with the whole 'little baby, long name' thing, really?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"The kid aint gonna be able to spell her name!"

"Have you ever noticed that I don't call Joey Josephina? We aint gonna call her Gabriella, we gonna call her Gabbi, like how Joey's Joey"

"You make everything confusing"

And when Joey wasn't looking Daryl went over her head and flipped Merle off, Merle mouthed back to him "Dick!" 


	2. Chapter 2

"We aint never gonna find em' this way"

Joey was getting stubborn while looking, with Merle, for Daryl and Gabbi. They didn't even find a clue.

"Stop freakn' out we'll find them"

"No we won't"

"Yes"

"No"

"Yes we will, now keep lookn'! This is where you left her, right?"

"Yeah"

Merle could tell she was getting tired and frustrated, her mood immidiatley changed to upset, he could see her about to cry.

He whined, "Oh, come on, don't cry, I hate it when you guys do that...It's so akward!"

"I'm living in some crappy, make-shift town, with my drug addict uncle, my dad and my baby sister are missing and probably dead, and you're telling me not to cry!"

She was crying, Merle sighed and held out his arm "C'mere"

She dove into his arms and he tried his best to calm her down "We'll find them and you don't need to worry about it"

"But this is the only time the governor will let us out to look"

"I'll talk to him and figure something out"

"Fine, but if one of them is a walker and we see it, I'm out"

"What the hell does that mean?"

"It means, that walker sees me...and won't go hungry"

"If you're out, I'm out"

She sighed, "K"

"Just for the record, my stash got left with Daryl and those other ass hats"

She smiled "Fine, drug addict redacted"

"Good, and i'm only out if the walker is Gabbi, if its Daryl then Gabbi could still be out there and I wanna help her so I can take

care of her and shit...You guys mean something to me too" 


	3. Chapter 3

Daryl and Carol were back at the farm after their run. They were trying to figure out how to explain Gabbi to the rest of the group.

"Well she's awake...Just introduce her"

"Yeah but then I'll have to explain her and I really don't wanna do that"

"I'll help, it'll be ok"

He sighed "Fine"

They got out of the truck and Daryl pulled Gabbi out and onto her feet. He held her hand brought her into the house. Maggie and Glenn were fighting in the living room about Hershel or something dumb, Daryl wasn't listening. Then they saw Gabbi.

"Where the hell did the little kid come from?!"

Maggie elbowed him for swearing in front of her...Daryl realized what she was trying to do "Oh it's ok, she's lived with Merle"

"What!?"

"She's my daughter, Merle's lived with us, so swearing's fine"

"How do you have a daughter!?"

"Well, its a long story"

Carol nodded beside him "It is, I got to hear it in the car"

Maggie chriped up "Make it short then"

"Ok, but first you should know that she's not the only one"

"What!?"

"She's not my first daughter"

Gabbi looked up at him "Are you talking 'bout Joey, Daddy?"

"Uh huh"

Glenn got confused "Joey doesn't sound like a daughter"

"It's short for Josephina, after my mom"

He seemed to understand something. "So where did she come from?"

Daryl turned to Carol "How about you go show her off to some people" and he handed Gabbi over to her

"Ok, Come on sweeite, I'm gonna introduce you to the rest of our group, ok?"

"Ok"

Daryl turned back to Glenn, "Joey got ditched on our doorstep by her mama...Kinda the same thing with Gabbi but her mom actually came to the door"

Maggie was confused this time around "So they are biologically yours, right?"

"Yeah...I just didn't choose the best people to hook up with...But I blame Merle for that, he's really pushy when it comes to that kind of stuff"

Maggie seemed to melt a little "Ok I'm sorry, but oh my god she is so cute! How old is she?"

"She's four...This is what Merle got mad at random people for"

"What?"

"Not complimenting their adorableness"

They laughed, Glenn got curious "So how old's, uh, Joey"

"She's twelve"

"Like Carl and Sophia"

Daryl nodded...Glenn got hesitant, then asked, "Is she just missing or is...she...dead?"

Maggie smacked him "Glenn shush!"

"I don't know anymore...All I do is hope that Merle knows"

"How come we never met her, in the beginning"

"We lived pretty close to Atlanta, along the outskirts...And I told them to stay in one place...An abandoned bomb shelter, that walkers couldn't get into, I told them to be quiet, and I'd come back for them...I couldn't get back there...There was food and plenty of water and when we found Gabbi Joey was gone. She said that Joey went out to look for me and Merle because she didn't hear anything outside...Gabbi said she didn't come back, but she didn't scream either...So I don't know what to do."

Maggie melted again "Aww, Daryl, I really wanna hug you right now"

"Please don't"

Then Glenn said, "Aaaaand theres the Daryl we know"

"Shut up, short-round!"

Later Daryl saw Beth going upstairs with Gabbi in her arms. "Where are you guys going?"

"Were gonna go look for some coloring books, then all three of us are gonna color"

"Three?"

"Yeah Me, Gabbi, and Carl"

"Oh, ok"

Later they were coloring. It was a Christmas coloring book so it probably encouraged Carl to ask "Hey Dad?"

"What?"

"What month is it?"

"Uum, I think it's either August or October"

Hershel always kept track of the date so when he came back into the room he told us the date

"It's September twenty-fifth"

Daryl looked up, shocked at the date, "Hey, Daddy, isn't it Joey's birthday today?"

"Yeah, baby...It is"

Then Carol came in the house crying and ran up the stairs. Daryl, trying to get his mind off of Joey, went up after her.

He saw her in her room clutching a pillow and sobbing. Probably about Sophia, who was still missing.

"Carol? Are you ok?"

She sobbed some more then nodded "No!"

"What's wrong?"

She sighed "Shane...wants to...stop looking for her!"

"What?!"

"He says...she...she...she's making us weak!"

He wiped away one of her tears "It's ok, I'll go look for her"

"He won't let anyone else go...anymore. He just sitting out there waiting to say no"

"Carol, I hunt, if I can sneak around animals with keen senses, I can sneak around Shane, I mean it's the same thing"

She smiled "You really think you'll find her?"

"I know I will"

She looked out the window Daryl turned her face back toward him "I'll bring her back to you, I promise"

"Thank you"

She got closer and kissed him lightly, then she hugged him...They held their embrace for about five minutes.

"You only did that because of your girl didn't you"

"Partially, but she isn't back yet...I'm not getting my hopes up"

"Hey! I aint comn' back without her"

"What about Gabbi?"

"Oh please, everyone here loves her...They'll keep her busy"

He got up to leave "I'll be back soon"

He went downstairs, followed by questions "Is she ok, what's wrong?"

"She's fine... I'm goin' hunting"

Gabbi got up when she noticed he was going somewhere. She jumped up from her coloring book and ran over to him.

"Daddy, where are you going?"

"I'm gonna go get some food"

"Can I go too?!"

"No, baby"

"Why not?"

"It aint safe"

"So why are you going, Daddy?"

"Cuz, I'm older than you" he tapped her nose. She shook her head when he did

"K, you stay with Maggie and Glenn and stay safe, ok?"

"Ok"

"Atta girl" he kissed her on the head "Love ya"

He turned to leave "Love you too, Daddy"

He was met outside the door by Shane "Where you goin'?"

"Huntin'"

"Need an accomplice?"

"No, you'll just slow me down"

"No I won't, I'll stay outta your way"

"I'm fine by myself"

They didn't know it but Carol was watching them through the window. Shane was glaring at Daryl. "Hey Daryl?"

He turned around "You want your 'squirrel string' or are you gonna stuff those carcasses in your belt?"

"Gimme' the string"

He snatched it from Shane and walked away

He was deep in the woods when he saw her. She was curled up on the ground, shaking, and she was very pale. Daryl knelt down beside her, he grabbed the water bottle from his belt and sprinkled some on her face. She shook a bit more and woke up. To his releif, they were blue, all the same as they were before. She grabbed the bottle from him and drank about half of it. She was still shivering, Daryl pulled his coat off and wrapped it around her.

"Hey, are you ok?"

She nodded and pulled the coat tighter around her. Daryl got up and picked her up into his arms. He carried her back to the farm. When he was about half-way there he sat down on a log and put her in his lap to give her some more water.

"You didn't get bit did you?"

"No, I'm just tired and hungry and stuff"

"Of course, we'll get you some food when we get back to the farm"

"Farm?"

"Oh yeah, Carl got hurt out in the woods and a man that lives on a farm invited us into his home, it's safe there"

"Oh, is Carl ok?"

"Yeah, oh and I found my daughter"

Before they were out on the highway Daryl tried to help Sophia with her confidence and told her the story already

"Really?! Which one?!"

"Gabbi"

"The little one?"

"Yeah, well c'mon I have to get you back to your mother"

She stood up and he carried her back again. He saw Shane on the way into the house.

"Sophia don't listen to this"

"Ok"

"Hey! You son of a bitch! You wanna call off the search now!? Huh!"

He turned to see Daryl with Sophia in arms, then he got that dumb confused face he always got when he was shocked. Daryl glared at him on the way in. Sophia was growing sleepy in Daryl's arms. He could feel her arms growing limp over his shoulders. He walked into Carol's room. She was looking out the window.

"What'd I tell ya?"

She turned around and had instant tears when she went and took her into her own arms again. She went up and kissed Daryl.

"Thank you"

"Now that one was bribed"

"A little"

He smiled "Get some food in her...She needs the energy."

He made his way back downstairs and Hershel went up to check on Sophia's health. Gabbi was running toward him, he lifted her up.

"Daddy!"

He kissed her cheek "I colored some more, Daddy"

"Oh yeah?"

She nodded "Me and Carl done almost the whole book!"

"Save some for Sophia"

"Who's Sophia?"

"Carol's daughter, I just brought her back from the forest"

"Oh, why was she out there?"

"She got lost"

"Oh, like Joey is?"

"Yeah"

He tried to keep his mind off Joey "How about you show me the pictures you drew"

"Ok!"

She wiggled out of his arms and dragged him by the hand to look at the coloring book.

"I did this one, Carl did these two, Beth did that one! All three of us did that one cuz it was really hard!" 


	4. Chapter 4

Sophia got her energy back and was getting along perfectly with Gabbi. Daryl and Carol were getting "Chummy" like a lot more than before. Carl was all better, like he had been for a while. Maggie and Glenn got sent on a run for more coloring books after getting sick of hearing Carl, Sophia, and Gabbi whine. Even Beth did a little. Glenn found a book of mad libs for them to do...But it was more for Sophia and Carl, sometimes Beth, because Gabbi is so little and she doesn't know stuff like what a verb or a noun is so she can't exactly do them. She thought the little guy on the cover was funny though. Gabbi stopped sleeping as well as she used to though. Daryl usually had to sit with her until she actually got to sleep. Carol would wait up for him though..."Chummy"...Daryl had to do a lot to not fall asleep before Gabbi because she would talk the whole time before sleeping.

"Why does Carl have a gun?"

"Because its safer, baby"

"Can I have a gun?"

"No"

"Why not?"

"Because you're too little"

"Oh, Why do you shoot people?"

"They aren't people, baby"

He was pulling some of her hair behind her ear "Why not? They look like people, hurt people, but people"

"They're dangerous, not people, dangerous"

He had to explain it in a way that wouldn't scare her "Why are they dangerous? What happened?"

"Other dangerous people made them bad"

"Why?"

"Dangerous intent, baby"

"What's intent?"

"I don't know, baby"

"Is Uncle Merle dangerous?"

"I hope not"

"Is Joey?"

"Are you gonna sleep or what?"

"Ok"

"Ok, love ya, baby" he kissed her head "Get some sleep"

"K, love you too, Daddy"

Daryl went into Carol's room and she got up and went over to him then wrapped her arms around him. He pulled her closer and kissed her.

"Is she asleep?"

He nodded "Good" She kissed him again. He burried his face in her shoulder and she could tell something was wrong.

"What's the matter?"

"Gabbi asked if Merle and Joey were walkers"

He looked back down at her and she put her hands on his face "Oh, poor baby"

"I don't know what to do"

"You just have to occupy yourself, until you go looking for them"

"I don't think that's gonna help"

"Well it's your brother and your daughter, you'll worry about them...It's natural"

"You're the only one that gets it aren't you?"

"Well maybe"

She had her hand in his hair "It hurts"

"I know, but it gets better, I've got my family, you'll get yours"

He kissed her and held her close 


	5. Chapter 5

Joey was convinced that Merle knew what to do and just wasn't sharing his idea. "So?"

"So what?"

"So...What do we do?"

He shrugged

"I know you know, now out with it!"

He sighed, "The governor will let us leave but we can't come back and we have to be dead to the other residents"

"But...He'll actually kill us!"

"If we find the Atlanta group, he won't...The Atlanta group is very protective of each other, so its safe"

"But he could-"

"Rick would probably lay down his life for his fellow groupees, we'll be fine"

"So what are we gonna do?"

"We're gonna leave"

Merle was in the governor's house and was trying to talk to him. He was trying to change the subject a lot but Merle really needed to talk to him so he wasn't going to give up that easily.

"What are you here for, Merle?"

"Well, we leavin'"

"Who's 'we'"

"Me and Joey"

"Josephina?"

"Yeah"

"What's your death allaby?"

"We ventured outside the wall...Got bit, a good moral for them too"

"Alright, pack light, make it look like you just up and died, I'll get you keys to one of the cars we got down the road for the people that don't decide to stay. And best of luck on finding your brother and what's the other one?"

"My niece"

"Your niece"

He went and opened the door, where Joey was waiting in the hallway "Thank you, governor" he nodded then Merle left the room.

"Well?"

"Well, we got us a car and we gotta go pack stuff people won't even bother to look for"

"What?"

"Make it look like we brought nothing with, cuz we're dead"

"Oh"

They packed most of their stuff and waited for dark and headed out. They got in one of the cars, turns out they were left with a hummer, but it worked, there were no walkers in it, and it had extra space for their stuff and a place to sleep. They went back towards the camp that Merle started out in with the Atlanta group. They pulled up by the quarry where there were abandoned tents and their walker alarm still half strung up. They climbed out of the car and inspected the tents. Joey saw the sign that said it wasn't safe there, addressed to someone named Morgan, but it was useful to them too. There was a walker behind Merle and in the trees a ways. It had bony, pale, shredded limbs. A bandage around it's chest, no shirt, torn pants. One pant-leg was almost completely torn off. It's face was still intact, yellow-pink eyes, the pupil was almost blended into the color. It's facial hair was growing thin, head-hair too. But Merle recognized it, it took him a while to finally kill it. Joey noticed that he must've known who the walker used to be, and it had to be a bad sign. She went over to him and eyed the walker for a while.

"Was he in the Atlanta group?"

Merle nodded, "His name was Jim"  



	6. Chapter 6

Sophia was playing tic-tac-toe with a rock in the dirt with Gabbi. They were kinda far from the house but they were facing it. the forrest at their backs, not the safest way of doing things, but oh, well. They were just as easily playing games when a walker came up behind them. Thank god they heard it before they felt it. Sophia turned around and they both started screaming. Gabbi was really scared.

"Daddy!"

Sophia was equally scared though "Mama!"

Everyone was running over to them, Carl got out his gun, Rick stopped him though "Carl, don't!"

Daryl went and loaded his crossbow and shot the walker in the head. Then Gabbi ran into his arms and he lifted her up. She was crying uncontrollably. Carol was a little behind everyone else so Sophia ran to Daryl. When Carol caught up Sophia went over to her. Carl wanted to help Daryl out so he tried to pull the arrow out of the walker's head when he saw a car.

"Dad, theres a car"

"What?"

"Theres a car over there, it looks like a hummer"

"A car! You sure?"

"Yeah look!"

The car parked in the yard and Merle got out.

Merle and Joey were driving along a country rode when Merle saw movement. Usually it doesn't bother him but this time it was something about what he saw. He stared at it for a while, not keeping his eyes on the rode and when the car started to swerve Joey looked out his window.

"Oh my god, people! Uncle Merle theres people!"

"Yeah, and that kinda looks like...Rick"

"What!"

"We mighta' just found your daddy"

They parked on the farm and Merle got out of the car. A bunch of people were walking over to them. Daryl and Carol were currently occupied with their kids. When they saw how crowded it was by them, they went over there too. Daryl saw Merle and Gabbi stopped crying. Joey got out of the car. Everyone knew about her, and honetly it didn't take a genius to know she was Daryl's daughter. She looked like a twelve year old girl version of Daryl. Exactly the same. She saw her family and she smiled.

She started to run to them "Daddy!"

Daryl moved more to the front of all the people and caught her when she was running he lifted her up and kissed her cheek. Merle came over to them and lifted Gabbi up. They were a family again. 


End file.
